Betty Barton Evans

    Betty Barton Evans, a summer resident of Pondview Lane, East Hampton, who worked during World War II for the United States Coordinator of Information, the precursor to the Office of Strategic Services, and who later bred a Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes-winning horse, died at home in Greenwich, Conn., on Feb. 5. She was 89. The cause was gastric cancer, her family said.

    Ms. Evans and her second husband, Thomas Mellon Evans, owned Buckland Farms, a Virginia horse farm where they bred thoroughbred horses, including Pleasant Colony, the 1981 Derby and Preakness winner.

    Born on Nov. 22, 1923, in Rock Hill, S.C., to William Barton and the former Jane Dise Anderson, she grew up in Great Falls, Va. She attended Washington and Lee High School in Virginia.

    In 1942 she began working with the Coordinator of Information in Washington, D.C. The agency was later renamed the Office of Strategic Services, which eventually became the Central Intelligence Agency.

    It was in Washington that she met her first husband, Dr. William Farnsworth Loomis. They married after his deployment to China, and raised their children in Greenwich. The family emphasized the importance of travel and education, and every summer the couple took their children on trips to Europe and Asia.

    Ms. Evans was a member of the Greenwich Garden Club and was a skilled flower arranger who won many prizes, her family said. She also was on the flower committee of the Colony Club in New York City. Dr. Loomis died in 1973.

    In 1977, she marred Thomas Mellon Evans of Pittsburgh, a financier. They shared a passion for thoroughbred horse racing and established Buckland Farms.

    The Evanses were active philanthropists and supported a wide range of organizations, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New York Botanical Garden, the National Gallery of Art, and, in East Hampton, the East Hampton Library and the Ladies Village Improvement Society.

    Ms. Evans loved “all things canine,” her family said, and collected paintings, furniture, and wine.

    She was known for throwing beautiful parties, filled with interesting guests and exquisite wines, her family said, and will be missed, they said, for her “marvelous intelligence, extraordinary grace, natural elegance, and unforgettable charisma.”

    Mr. Evans died in 1997. Her children, Barton Loomis of Covington, La., and Jacqueline L. Quillen of Washington, D.C., survive, as do five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

    A service celebrating her life will be held at the Round Hill Community Church in Greenwich on March 9, with a reception following at the Field Club, also in Greenwich.

    Memorial donations have been suggested to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975.